Published in Canada Fifth edition: November 2012 Use of any Take It EASY Leader's Guide content and the Take It EASY logo is subject to the prior approval of Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada and must be credited accordingly. To request the use of the Take It EASY Leader's Guide content or the Take It EASY logo, contact BGCC's National Programs Team. Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada 400 – 2005 Sheppard Ave. E. Toronto, ON M2J 5B4 T: 905.477.7272 F: 416.640.5331 www.bgccan.com Copyright © Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada Generously supported by All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole, in part, or in any form. Introduction What is Take It EASY? As pre-teens and teens grow, they face many challenges in their personal and social development. The period of early adolescence (ages 8-16) is one in which youth face puberty, growing independence from home and parents, peer influence, and social and school pressures on a day-to-day basis. Take It EASY, a national program of Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, is designed to engage youth in fun and engaging small-group activities. Facilitated by a trained Club staff person, each session focuses on a particular issue such as self-esteem, body image, violence, gender issues, and sexuality. Each activity enables participants to ask questions, share their opinions and reflect upon the issues that are raised. The main objective of the program is to foster self-esteem and confidence in preteen and teen Club members. More specifically, Take It EASY aims to help youth: • develop social and emotional skills • understand the role of media and social media in their lives • understand how to manoeuvre themselves through conflict • improve their abilities to make decisions • develop positive relationships with their peers and adults Take It EASY • Empowerment and Self-Esteem for Youth Acknowledgements Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada has been running its national program, Take It EASY, for over a decade. With generous support from Tupperware Brands Corporation, we've been able to update this manual. The need for self-esteem programming still exists but some of the contexts have changed since the original manual was created and we believe this new and improved manual reflects some of the issues that youth are facing in the 21st century. We would like to recognize the work of Anne Bulley who, in working with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Nova Scotia more than 10 years ago, developed and wrote the original version of Take It EASY. The redevelopment of the Take It EASY manual would not have happened without the experience, expertise and knowledge of the following individuals. We sincerely thank them for all their help: • Talia Bell—Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary • Seana Jewer—Boys and Girls Club of Cole Harbour • Tamara Roberts—Boys and Girls Clubs of Hamilton • Lisa Olsmstead—Dawson Community Centre Boys and Girls Club • Cal Zimmer—Boys and Girls Club of Wetaskiwin • Keely Galt—Boys and Girls Club of Kingston & Area Inc. Best of luck with your Take It EASY program! Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada August 2010 Unit 1 Table of Contents GettinG 01 What You Will Find in this Manual Started 02 Kid-Friendly Vocabulary List 05 Getting your Take It EASY Group Started 06 Suggested Ground Rules 06 Facilitation Tips 07 Growth & Development Charts 09 Sample Letter to Parent/Guardians 10 Sample Promise Letter for Pre-teens Section 1: Self-Esteem 14 Background 17 Facilitation Tips for Staff 20 Community Outreach 22 Programming Ideas 25 Resources 28 Activities Section 2: Dealing with Violence 50 Background 57 Facilitation Tips for Staff 63 Community Outreach 66 Programming Ideas 69 Resources 72 Activities Section 3: Body Image 110 Background 112 Facilitation Tips for Staff 117 Community Outreach 118 Programming Ideas 121 Resources 125 Activities Section 4: Gender Issues 143 Background 147 Facilitation Tips for Staff 148 Community Outreach 149 Programming Ideas 151 Resources 153 Activities Take It EASY • Empowerment and Self-Esteem for Youth Unit 2 Table of Contents Section 1: Self-Esteem 172 Background 175 Facilitation Tips for Staff 180 Community Outreach 181 Programming Ideas 184 Resources 187 Activities Section 2: Body Image and Gender 204 Background 207 Facilitation Tips for Staff 209 Community Outreach 210 Programming Ideas 212 Resources 215 Activities Section 3: Sexuality and Healthy Relationships 227 Background 232 Facilitation Tips for Staff 236 Community Outreach 238 Programming Ideas 240 Resources 242 Activities Section 4: Violence and Behaviour 262 Background 269 Facilitation Tips for Staff 270 Community Outreach 272 Programming Ideas 273 Resources 276 Activities GettinG Started What You Will Find in this Manual SectionS Each section of information in each chapter has been developed to give staff additional tools for dealing with pre-teens and teens in the four key areas mentioned above. The following breakdown gives staff a more detailed description of what they can find in each information section. A. BACKGROUND SECTION D. PROGRAMMING IDEAS • One to two page introduction • Offers more informal ideas for to the topic. getting teens and pre-teens • Provides information about to think about the topics. the topic and literature related • Provides a number of ideas to the issues. for special events, spontaneous • Describes the overall goals to programming and creating of an be met through the approaches, atmosphere in the Club conducive strategies and activities. to learning about an issue. • The ideas in this section would B. FACILITATION TIPS FOR STAFF be helpful to try as a supplement • Focuses on staff development to the more specific activities included • Offers one-to-one and one-to-group in the Activities section. approaches related to the topic area, as well as checklists for their own E. ACTIVITIES professional information and appraisal. • Provides actual activities to do with groups when a more formal opportunity C. COMMUNITY OUTREACH presents itself and an educational • Includes counselling, education and learning objective can be met. This facilitation tips, community outreach could be a Torch Club, Junior Leader ideas and “how-to’s” for involving or Keystone meeting, during day camp, parent/guardians in the particular issue. or even on the bus. F. RESOURCES • Lists some of the A/V materials, internet websites, books, and other printed materials about each of the four issue areas. Take It EASY • Empowerment and Self-Esteem for Youth 1 Kid-Friendly Vocabulary List terMS Self-Esteem is how I feel and what I think about myself! If I have high self-esteem I usually feel like I’m a good kid, proud of what I can do, and proud of myself. I feel important to people I love. If I have low self-esteem I usually feel badly or sad about who I am and I don’t feel like I am good at very many things. I might be unsure if people I love care about me. Bullying is when a child hurts another child on purpose (it’s not an accident). The child uses hurtful words or actions again and again and bullying may go on for a long time. Sometimes bullying happens between two children but bullying can also involve a group of children. Bullying is not fair: the child who bullies has an advantage over the child being bullied. Children who bully may be bigger, stronger, or older; they may be more popular, or they may know something private or hurtful about the child who is being bullied. It is hard for the child who is being bullied to stop the bullying. Verbal Bullying is when someone chooses to make another person feel badly by using mean words. When someone verbally bullies someone they might call them names, mock/tease them, threaten them, and dare them to do something dangerous, or call their home or cell phone and say mean or hurtful things. Physical Bullying is when someone chooses to hurt another person’s body or damage their property. When someone physically bullies someone they might spit on them, shove/push them, kick them, hit them, threaten them with a weapon, or damage their personal property. (Like throwing their books around, writing mean things on their school desk, or stealing something). Social Bullying is when someone chooses to make another person feel bad in front of his or her peers. When someone socially bullies someone they might gossip about that person, purposely embarrass them in front of other people, exclude them from a group, say racist, sexist or homophobic things, spread rumours about them, or set a person up to take the blame for something. Cyberbullying is when someone sends you mean messages on the computer or cell phone. Sometimes one kid will do this. Sometimes a group of kids will do this. It can happen one time or lots of times. You might not even know who is doing it. Some examples of cyberbullying are: posting hateful comments about other people on websites, blogs, through text messaging and instant messaging, stealing passwords and sending out threatening emails or instant messages, embarrassing others through name-calling, gossiping, spreading rumours. Violence is a way a person may choose to show anger or unhappy feelings. People can be violent in a physical way, an emotional/verbal way or they may choose to be sexually violent. 2 Kid-Friendly Vocabulary List terMS Physical violence: Examples of physical violence are, hitting, punching, kicking, throwing things around, “getting in someone’s face” or using weapons to hurt or scare people. Emotional/Verbal violence: Examples of emotional or verbal violence are calling people names, telling someone that they are no good or telling someone that they are worthless, yelling at people, threatening someone, leaving mean messages for someone (like on MSN, Facebook or in a note on paper) or try to convince someone do something they don’t want to do.